Bits n’ Pieces March 27

The Masterpiece site is prepared for the premier of Little Dorrit this Sunday night (March 29) at 9 pm Eastern. The Little Dorrit minisite is full of features, and Episode 1 of 5 will be available for online viewing on March 30 and will remain online till May 3. Set your TiVos!

 

There’s another supposed Titanic replica in the works—as if we haven’t heard that one before. This one comes from Finland, where a Finnish tycoon is preparing to erect a full-scale model of the infamous liner next to his shopping center, at a price tag of around 30 million euros, in hopes of luring more tourists and shoppers to the area. Well, let me know how that works out for you, Mr. Ambitious—if you pull it off, I promise to visit the Land of the Finns before I die.

 

I found this Examiner entry titled “Books to Film: Four major mistakes movie companies make.” Amen sister, especially to the point about dialogue. Few things leave a more indelible impression on a reader than the novel’s dialogue; where would Pride & Prejudice adaptations be without the quintessential Darcy line, “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me.” As this writer points out, authors put words into the mouths of their characters for a reason. Screwing with the dialogue in an attempt to add originality often backfires; one can never go wrong by sticking with phrases and lines straight from the novel. And her criticisms of Eragon are solid. Ask any Eragon fan, and they will tell you what a failure that movie was. I remember walking into the bathroom after leaving the theater and hearing a devastated girl exclaim to her friend, “They ruined the story!” As one commentator noted, however, books-to-film can be done right, noting The Lord of the Rings trilogy as one magnificent example.  

But in short, please be careful with our books, Hollywood.

~ by Lady Ashley on March 27, 2009.